National Affairs: New World Salon

It was a house where "Roosevelt at 43 could not be taken seriously." It
was a salon such as Dr. Johnson and his Literary Club would have never
thought possible on the barbarous shores of the New World.

In 1884 H. H. Richardson, probably the first great genius among American
architects, built twin houses on La Fayette Square in Washington, D. C.
One was the home of Henry Adams, historian, man of letters; in the
other lived John Hay, statesman. Mr. Hay became Ambassador to the Court
of St. James's, then Secretary of State under Presidents McKinley and
Roosevelt. Imperceptibly, inevitably,...